Africa PE producers start to announce October offers

LONDON (ICIS)--Producers of polyethylene (PE) for the African markets are starting to announce their October price offers, sources said this week.

Some market players may target a small price increase.

“For LLDPE and LDPE [we’ll target] a slight increase”, one Middle East producer said. “There’s very good demand and a short supply in the region.”

The source attributed this shortage to production problems in the Middle East and Asia.

However, other producers are unsure of October price targets, and will hold back on a firm decision for the time being.

Another producer of LDPE (low-density polyethylene) and LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene) said on Wednesday: “We cannot see an increase in demand. It's not picking up. We might increase [prices] slightly. We’ll wait for the situation to become clear.”

“It’s too early to say,” a third producer said. “We are monitoring the market.”

A fourth said it will wait for the settlement of the European October ethylene contract price settlement before deciding on October African PE price targets.